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To some degree graphics reached "good enough" for me with Crysis like 5 years ago. Recently though it's being hammered into my skull. I've played three games recently, Far Cry 3, Max Payne 3 and Hitman: Absolution, which look AMAZING. Like, as lifelike as I think games ever need to look. Any more lifelike might actually look worse in a weird way.

Since budgets keep climbing and sales stay the same, it makes sense to stop at some point. Games like Minecraft, WoW and every indie game ever show that people care more about art design and gameplay than they do pure tech. I am definitely at a place now where I don't need graphics to look any better.

How about you? Eager for new consoles, hoping graphics take another leap? Looking to SLI two amazing new video cards this Fall so you can pump out the latest amazingness? Or are you good to go, like me, and hoping for a very small upgrade?

It doesn't make sense to stop. If CDPR can create one of the best looking games of all time on a paupers' budget, then there's no need to curtail progress. Mostly, I see console fanboys claiming graphics hurt the industry ( there's irony) and that we should all go play FEZ in repentance. It's nonsense.

I thought that point was reached when I played Donkey Kong on the SNES... I think there are valid arguments against increasing the resolution in movies, but I do not see any need to simply cease graphical development in gaming at this point.

scampywiak: It doesn't make sense to stop. If CDPR can create one of the best looking games of all time on a paupers' budget, then there's no need to curtail progress. Mostly, I see console fanboys claiming graphics hurt the industry ( there's irony) and that we should all go play FEZ in repentance. It's nonsense.

Yes, and look what good it did them. I'm sure that TW2 is a good game, but the game was so poorly optimized early on that I have yet to actually be able to play it. It's not just throwing more pixels and polygons up there, it's optimizing it so that it runs with reasonable specs.

But, really, apart from people, there's little, if anything, to be gained for making games better looking. Especially if they aren't spending money on proper game design.

I hate the graphic onanists blabbing all the time how the games look crappy and stuff like that. I dont need ultra realistic graphics to enjoy my games. Last couple years is great proof of how the gameplay is damaged by spending budgets on flashy graphics and promotion.

Yeah, i'm ok with graphics not significantly advancing in the next few years, but I'd like to see more and better physics in games. I'm sick of unmovable objects, if i'm a dude with a rocket launcher, I want to blow shit up with that thing.

Robette: but I do not see any need to simply cease graphical development in gaming at this point.

StingingVelvet: I tried to outline the need. Budgets are way too high and will only go higher. Sales do not justify those budgets.

I am really not a fan of "free market" arguments, but intuitively that seems to be something that will eventually be settled on the basis of profitability. If you want to be a top player in any of the very graphic focused genre it seems tentative to hook up with one of the big players, which frequently seems to harm the gameplay, but for everything else you got an increasingly vivid indie-scene or kickstarter which makes niche-products possible again.

The more realistic graphics in games, the more artificial it looks. Plastic looking water, plastic looking blood, plastic looking faces, etc. I'm not saying that all modern games looks plastic but there is a very large percentage that does.